The U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,406 discloses novel chemical compounds containing a dye moiety and which also have an "anchoring" moiety which renders the compound immobile and non-diffusible in a photographic processing composition. Upon oxidation, these compounds may autoreact intramolecularly in such a way as to form a new heterocyclic ring and, as a function of such reaction, to split off the dye moiety as a mobile and diffusible color-providing material.
One group of compounds of this description are represented in this copending application as being of the formula: ##STR2## wherein: each of R and R.sup.4 comprises a long chain amide, e.g., of at least 13 carbon atoms; D represents a dye moiety, e.g., a monoazo, disazo or anthraquinone dye moiety; and n and n.sup.1 may be 1 or 2, provided that at least one of them is 2 to provide an anchoring moiety; and nuclear substituted derivatives thereof, e.g., where any of the nuclear carbon atoms of the respective benzene moieties not containing one of the specifically designated substituents may contain a carboxy, alkyl, alkoxy, amino, chloro, hydroxy or amide substituent.
Such compounds may be prepared by the following sequence of reactions: ##STR3##
The present invention is directed to novel procedures for preparing certain compounds within the scope of the above-mentioned formula, which procedures make it possible to utilize a greater range of more readily available compounds which in turn makes it possible to synthesize more conveniently a wider range of the desired compounds.